Kids these days have it pretty rough. With books like this one providing such authoritative content on classic rock’s royalty, where are kids going to get all those great rumours and misinformed factoids that made being a young music lover so fulfilling? Where’s the fun in being a young Doors fan without the “Jim Morrison is ALIVE, man” rumour? Where’s the joy in being a young Led Zeppelin devotee when rumours of devil worship are so quickly quashed?

With Flat-Out Rock, Toronto writer and musician Tanner provides capsule biographies and commentary on 10 of the longest-lingering icons of rock’s glory days. By focusing on turning points (Bob Dylan’s release of “Like a Rolling Stone” and the creation of folk-rock, Neil Young’s penning of “Ohio” in response to the killings at Kent State, the Rolling Stones’ appearance at Altamont), Tanner is able to deftly summarize both the immediate import and the long-term significance of the acts selected, which also include Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. His writing is concise and direct, in the manner of a magazine profile, and draws on disparate sources to create matter-of-fact summaries of the lives of some of rock music’s most larger-than-life figures. A short introduction lays the groundwork for the sociology of the time, describing the roots of the youth movement that allowed this music to flourish. Text blocks and photo captions throughout the book pick up these themes, describing the anti-war and civil rights movements, among others.

If there’s any shortcoming, it is with the selection of the acts Tanner covers (he actually anticipates this question in his introduction). Given their influence, shouldn’t the Velvet Underground be here instead of CCR? Wouldn’t the Grateful Dead be better than Janis Joplin? That sort of trainspotting quibble, however, serves as an indicator of the quality of Tanner’s text. He’s created an introduction to the rock pantheon that will be of interest to new music fans and their parents. I hope there will be a second volume.